


In Quel Sorriso

by Teniserie



Series: Little Runaways [8]
Category: Little Nightmares (Video Game)
Genre: F/M, blind! mono au, soft monix fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-06
Updated: 2021-02-06
Packaged: 2021-03-18 17:48:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,670
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29247528
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Teniserie/pseuds/Teniserie
Summary: Six and Mono are faced with a problematic hindrance.However, she doesn't take it very lightly.
Relationships: Mono & Six (Little Nightmares), Mono/Six (Little Nightmares)
Series: Little Runaways [8]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1910602
Comments: 5
Kudos: 203





	In Quel Sorriso

“Hey, who turned out the lights? Six?”

Six’s far-fetched fears were confirmed as she watched Mono’s hands search for his favored partner aimlessly in spite that she was right in front of him. About struck by a dolesome verdict laying in wait for him next, she did not want to break it to him. She mulled over serving a lie to coax him and acquainting him with the harsh truth. This was going to hurt her more than it was going to hurt him, she was certain of that.

“Mono.” She gathered his outstretched hands into her own. “It’s not dark.”

The boy’s head traced her voice, dull eyes looking straight through the girl. He blinked, cocking his head to the side in bewilderment. “Then why can’t I see…”

It took no more than a second for it to click. The staid realization hit him like a brick as the breath died in his throat, the muscles clenching together. The accumulated panic was evident in the ghostly haze with the resemblance of those of the deceased which once beheld an unfettered spirit that no one was able to emit other than Mono.

But he managed to recollect himself before he’d come undone into unravelling hysteria. “Six, wha...what happened? How did this happen?”

The memory was still fresh in her mind, but it only replayed in temporal flashes for it was too overbearing for her to handle. If there was anything she despised more than the forsakened world in which they dwelled, it was anything bad being inflicted upon her friend. Her only friend.

They two had just recovered from an ongoing pursuit with the Defuncts. They were nearly a breadth of hair to safety when just in the nick of time, one clawed at Mono’s trench coat and yanked him from Six’s grasp, pelting him through the air and into a vacant crevice.

The following events blurred into a vague memory she could not recall all too well. It would be too presumptuous that Mono had hit his head and damaged the optic nerve on impact. But it was the only logical reason there was.

Six dwindled a little, growing a little light-headed as the gravity of the situation had taken its toll on her already. Her legs buckled and her disheartened breakdown resulted in her collapsing on her hands and knees, seething curses under her staggered breaths. They were juggling a multitude of things and now another ball was thrown into the pigsty of everything going disarray.

She felt a gentle hand brush over her back and upon glancing upward through bloodshot and wetted eyes, a towering Mono had crouched down next to her dejected form and despite of the sobriety of the dilemma they’re currently stumbling across, he wore an expression that starkly contrasted his frantic mood prior to this one of consolation that seemed to have always taken to effect.

“This won’t be the end of the world, Six. I mean, hey, it could’ve been worse! I would’ve gotten my legs slivered off! I’d be a hopping stump, now would I?” Mono jested with his humoring witticism, emphasizing with him crouching down like a bunny and hopping about in the attempts of brightening the bleak atmosphere. Though his handicapped sight ebbed his awareness of the environment and so happened to nail his head against a low shelf with a subtle thump followed by a faint groan.

The audacity of how Mono seemed completely unfazed by the fact that he was gravel-blind for God knows how long—and not knowing whether this was a either a temporary or permanent diagnosis made it all the more dismaying. She shared a laugh with him anyway, though hindered with her sketicsm.

There was no foretelling how this would affect them in the long run.

\- -

The days thereafter weren’t any easier than the first. Most of which consisted with tomfoolery and maladroit impingement. One of the benefits that Mono normally would’ve taken for granted was his acute hearing and preternatural sense of smell. With that, they managed to evade astral predators that would get the better of them no doubt.

Mono’s impairment was nearly overlooked throughout the course of those days, well at least by him. It stood as the elephant in the room to which wasn’t acknowledged as an actual predicament.

It was a wonder how the boy was holding out for this long. He seemed almost unfazed by his impediment and carried on through the days like before, his spirits as high as ever. As if he wouldn’t let something like this debilitate his stalwart disposition. It was quite the spectacle. Under normal circumstances, the energy he emanated would be so infectious, it would rub off on her. But her mind was too absorbed on the disregarded issue before them, she grew more and more dense. Her attitude grew to starkly contrast his own. Her serried demeanor drew an apparent distance between the two, her speaking less than what little she managed to utter, no matter how many times Mono made the attempts to pry something out of her.

Six wasn’t usually one to fly off the handle, but frankly, her forbearance on the matter had worn thin with every passing second. As badly as she wanted to address the topic, her words had failed her. She waited for him to realize that it wasn’t just him carrying this burden. She too was shouldering a large portion of it. But if she was going to be honest, it seems like he was the one supporting her emotionally. Though she would steer him away from any incoming obstacles and guide him along the way ninety percent of the time, he was the pillar to which she could brace on. Same as then, and as of now, he still was.

Finally, after careful thought and prolonged moments of contemplation, she broached the topic in the evening on the third day. Seeing Mono’s smile evaporate right off his face into a more somber expression made her stomach churn in an unsettling manner.

“What—What are we going to do?” Six curled her fingers on, digging the nails into the palm of her hands in deep frustration. “How long will we put up with this?”

“What do you mean?” he retorted with a question of his own. God, was this boy that oblivious? Did he have his head stuck in the sand or something?

“I-I-I just—I just don’t understand!” Six stumbled over her words, blurting them out without consideration. “You act as if nothing has happened when clearly, it’s lying right in front of you? How are you so...so happy?!”

It was at this moment that Six knew, now she’d gone and done it. Anticipating the worst, she braced herself for Mono to lash out in retaliation, as uncharacteristic that would be since this is Mono we were talking about, she had chafed at a wound a little too severely, wishing that she could rewind a few seconds back. Unfortunately, she was at a loss.

Though being met with complete silence, the tension in her shoulders had not eased up. She refused to tear her gaze away from her hands, which were sitting idly in her lap, palms facing upward. How pitiful she must look right now. She reeked of lament, internally seeking an answer from Mono but to no prevail.

That was until a hand came into view, fine fingers slipping into her calloused palm, the notably ashy, pale skin highlighted a tint of pink at the joints. “When my father left us, things began to go downhill from there. The load my father used to brook in order to pay off the house and to put food on the table was then lumped on my mother. How she managed to stay strong, baffled me. So I asked her the exact same thing and you know what she said?”

Six tore her eyes from the ground and now at Mono’s ghostly irises. A hint of a smile was displayed on Mono’s face as he mooted his mother’s words from memory, “It is better to smile these tough days away rather than to mope about it. It takes more muscles to frown than to smile, so why waste all that energy when you can dream a bourne that enraptures you. Remember, if it doesn’t terrify you, then it’s not worth the journey going there. The adventure is the destination, and you could never really know if you’re sitting here, sulking on a little mishap.

“It is achieved by laughing until your guts hurt, smiling until your cheeks ache, and dancing until your legs give away. Having a positive outlook on a situation isn’t expecting for things to turn out okay. It is knowing that YOU will be okay no matter how things turn out.”

Mono took his other hand and reached for Six, with a little help from the girl as she pressed her cheek against Mono’s caressing touch, melting willingly into it. “That is why I try not to linger on these things as such. At least I’m not dead! Right?”  
Six giggled, feeling the warmth settle on her chest like a kindled candle, one of which restored this unabashed, genuine bliss only Mono could ignite. “I see, now.”

Everything came to a standstill for a moment before the boy brushed a thumb over her cheek. “Will you promise me something?” Six hummed in response, indicating that she was all ears. “That you won’t let your smile die. ‘Cause I won’t let the memory of it slip away like that.”

As certain as the sun would come out every day in the morning, Six brushed her lips over the bridge of Mono’s nose as a reassuring gesture of her affection and pressed her forehead against his own. With that, she vowed in a hushed whisper in a volume only Mono could hear, “And the moment you get your sight back, I’ll be sure it’ll be the first thing you see.”


End file.
